Tonight is Clasico! FC Barcelona welcomes Real Madrid to the Camp Nou, in a match followed by the whole world, and with a lot at stake on all sides. Beyond the historic rivalry, the Merengues must win or risk finding themselves 9 points behind their sworn enemy in the La Liga standings. There are players like Lamine Yamal or Kylian Mbappé who will also want to show their best side. But if there is a man who plays big, and who is keen to hurt his evening rival, it is José Mourinho.
And for good reason, the Portuguese coach has real hatred for FC Barcelona. And it’s reciprocal, even if the tension has weakened a little since his first sulphurous stint at the head of the Merengues. It must be said that the story of hatred between the Special One and the Catalan club had the potential to be in reality… a love story. Younger generations don’t know it, but in 1996, a young José Mourinho arrived at FC Barcelona as assistant to Bobbt Robson, whom he had known in Portugal. He then remained at the club despite the Englishman’s dismissal a year later, occupying different roles in the different staffs that followed, for example being a video analyst, then again assistant.
From frustration
If many supporters culés make fun of him by calling him “the translator” – he actually took care of translating Robson’s instructions at the time – he was very appreciated internally by the players, including, at the time, young Carles Puyol, Xavi or Pep Guardiola. However, the Catalan management never really wanted to offer him a more important role, he who was rather happy, to the point where some explained that his dream was to become the coach of the first team. Which could have happened well after his departure from the club in 2000, since on several occasions, his name was announced as a potential coach of the A. In 2008, the club thought very strongly of him… But Laporta finally offered to Guardiola. Multiple disappointments which caused real scars for the Portuguese.
In 2010, before arriving on the bench at the Bernabéu, he also had a very lively Champions League semi-final against FC Barcelona, with barbs at a press conference, which had already put him in the sights of the Barcelonans. And inevitably, upon his arrival, this aversion was accentuated on one side or the other. Not helped by a very complicated media context, and a rather difficult sporting context with the man who was surely the best Barça in history opposite, José Mourinho adopted an almost warlike strategy upon his arrival. The Special One had thus multiplied the media outings against the Catalan club, with accusations linked to arbitration, and this famous “Por Qué? » (“why” in Spanish, Editor’s note) after the 2011 semi-final in which he questioned the decisions of many referees who would have favored Barça in previous years.
What about today?
It is also said that the famous Clasico de la manita (5-0) in November 2010 had particularly affected him on a moral level, and the presence of a Pep Guardiola praised by the public in front of him also frustrated him. On the pitch, his team also played particularly aggressively, and there was also this episode of the Spanish Super Cup in the summer of 2011, during which he put his finger in the eye of Tito Vilanova (then in Guardiola’s staff) during a scuffle. For Mourinho, creating permanent tension with Barça was also a strategy, serving to mobilize everyone madridismo behind him, and to put pressure on his rival. Since his return this summer, and after several rather peaceful weeks, he very quickly put a part back into the machine, more than ten years later.
Even if he is perhaps a little less virulent and explicit in his remarks than at the beginning of the 2010s, the Special One does not miss an opportunity to launch accusations against Barça and the arbitrations which would be favorable to it. The Negreira affair has logically been mentioned several times by the Lusitanian since the start of the season. Even if it is clear that this season, Mourinho’s speech is a little less popular with madridistas, with a good number of supporters accusing him of wanting to divert attention from the team’s real problems by talking about Barça or the referees. Tonight, at the Camp Nou, José Mourinho will meet his sworn enemy, and there is no doubt that any result other than a victory will be a huge disappointment for him…
